Pair Gets Probation In Abuse Of Sacrificial Lamb

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) – A former Colorado Springs couple have been sentenced to a year of probation after a jury convicted them of animal abuse for their treatment of a lamb that authorities say they intended to sacrifice for Passover.

The Colorado Springs Gazette reports 42-year-old Elijah Black and 30-year-old Periz Jackson were sentenced Monday. They were also ordered to perform 50 hours of community service, pay fines and attend marriage counseling.

They were charged with locking the lamb in a closet lined with urine- and feces-soaked hay, no water and a heavy chain around its neck in 2012.

Authorities say the pair were members of a religious sect called the Hebrew-Israelites.

The couple turned the animal over to Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region.